UCSD faculty caught playing hooky

UCSD faculty’s hooky play

A September 21 report by UCSD’s Audit & Management Advisory Services has some words of tough love for errant faculty members discovered to be taking too many paid vacations and not reporting them. “We determined that many departments/ divisions did not have processes in place to ensure that faculty vacation leave usage accurately reflected vacation leave reported,” says the document entitled Health Sciences Faculty Vacation Leave Reporting.

“Based on the responses we received from Health Sciences department administrators, departments did not feel that a vacation day was clearly defined by the University, had not further defined it within their departments/divisions, and faculty members typically felt that they were always working.” As a result, the report goes on to say, “many faculty members did not have a sense of responsibility that they should be reporting vacation usage, and administrators had a difficult time articulating to faculty when a vacation day should be taken.”

Advises the audit: “If a faculty member normally works at a UCSD clinic, hospital, lab, office, classroom, or other typical location performing research, clinical, or other University activities and generally works a particular schedule or assigned schedule, any significant deviation from those University activities or schedule should represent a leave of absence.” For those still having problems with the difference between vacation and work, the audit offers: “It may be helpful for departments to further clarify and/or provide examples of vacation leave to assist faculty members in their understanding of vacation leave reporting requirements.”

Escaping the slammer

San Diego County Supervisors intend to spend about $300,000 over 18 months for a consultant to help them find ways to empty local jails, per a November 12 request for proposals from would-be contractors. On October 19, by a 5-0 vote, the supervisors approved directing county Chief Administrative Officer Helen N. Robbins-Meyer “to solicit recommendations and convene stakeholder meetings regarding the interventions that would most effectively and safely reduce the San Diego jail populations,” per a board letter.

The consultant would provide a “Data Analysis Regarding Data-Driven Approach to Protecting Public Safety, Improving and Expanding Rehabilitative Treatment and Services, and Advancing Equity Through Alternatives to Incarceration.” Notes a board letter, “There may be fiscal impacts associated with future recommendations,” but just how costly the new project will depend on what the consulting team eventually proposes. Tasks are to include “a data-driven analysis on how the use of jails changed from pre-COVID-19 versus during COVID-19, with a focus on identifying policy interventions that would most effectively, safely, and permanently reduce the San Diego jail populations.”

Off-season campaign cash

Republican politico T.J. Zane, whose current term on the Poway school board ends in a year, has been making significant behests to his non-profit San Diego County Prosperity group. “There have been zero local non-profit organizations serving the interests of fiscal conservatives who value personal liberty and responsibility, free enterprise, reasonable regulation, and low taxes. Until now,” Zane writes on the group’s website. “As you’ll see, our goals are big, hairy, and audacious. We believe big, hairy, audacious goals are a unifying focal point of effort, galvanizing partners and creating team spirit as we strive toward our objectives.”

Michael Schlesinger, the Beverly Hills developer famous for pouring chicken manure on an Escondido golf course in a battle with neighbors opposing his project there, and the Millenia Real Estate Group, run by Guy Asaro, each gave Zane’s group $10,000. The cash reportedly went for “sponsorship of annual charity concert benefiting Rady Children’s Hospital,” according to twin November 16 filings...California Democratic Senate pro tem Toni Atkins, seeking to become the state’s Lieutenant Governor when she’s termed out of the legislature in 2026, continues to collect big money for her California Works ballot measure committee, which she’s used bankrolling the campaigns of political allies.

On November 15, the California Apartment Association PAC gave $25,000, according to a disclosure filing of the same date. Two days earlier, the Smart Justice California Action Fund came up with $10,000, per another November 15 filing. Last July, Politico reported that four wealthy Bay Area donors — Patty Quillin, Quinn Delaney, Elizabeth Simons and Kaitlyn Krieger — had “channeled $22 million toward criminal justice ballot measures and allied candidates the previous two years. They spent $3.7 million alone to elect George Gascón, who rode the social justice wave that swept over America last summer to unseat incumbent Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey in November.”

Next year, they are prepared to defend appointed liberal state Attorney General Rob Bonta from charges that his policies have contributed to rising crime. “I think the rhetoric of the 2022 attorney general race is going to resemble the dynamic of status quo, lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the key, tough-on-crime versus a new approach to public safety,” Anne Irwin, founder of Smart Justice, told Politico.

— Matt Potter

(@sdmattpotter)

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